Would You Support A Law Requiring All Welfare Recipients To Pass A Drug Test First? [VIDEO]

A new resolution that will require unemployed Americans to drug tests before they can claim jobless benefits is heading to President Donald Trump’s office for final approval.

The new resolution passed the House on February and was approved by the Senate on Tuesday, March 14. It will end the old rule, implemented under former President Barack Obama, which mandated states could only test applicants if they were looking for work in jobs that require regular drug screenings.

Democrats, however, argue that the law makes unemployed Americans fall victim of the stereotype that unemployment is associated with drug use.

“If you’re looking for work, you’re guilty of drug use until being proven innocent,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said.

According to some studies, there are mixed results when it comes to the correlation. Some argue that welfare recipients are more likely to use drugs than those who are in the working world, which creates trouble among taxpayers who are technically funding their addictions.

While the 2012 law broadly stated that states could test applicants looking for work in fields that require frequent drug screening, the 2016 regulation more narrowly defined what that meant, giving a specific list of eligible jobs, including commercial drivers, flight crew members, and anyone who carries a firearm at work.

But since the 2016 regulation went into effect less than 60 legislative days ago, it was eligible for repeal under the Congressional Review Act. The little-used maneuver allows Congress to overturn newly implemented federal regulations with a simple majority (instead of the standard three-fifths vote).

The Department of Labor will have an opportunity to write up a new regulation, but they will have to be careful what they write because it has to be much different than the regulation that was nixed, according to the Congressional Review Act.

Currently, all political parties are offering up their different opinions regarding the regulation.

Additionally, Republicans claimed the Obama-era regulation gave the federal government too much oversight on an issue that should have been decided at the state level.

“As we saw too often, the Obama administration went beyond its legal authority in creating legislation that limits the role of state governments,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview.